Tag: Brazil

The Brazilian government registered a primary deficit of $470 million (1.6 billion Real) in the first half of 2015, according to figures from the National Treasury release on Thursday, O Globo newspaper reported. The deficit is the worst result since 1997. In the same period last year, the government recorded a surplus of $5 billion (17 billion real).

Brazil' minister of agriculture Katia Abreu said she was very optimistic about Mercosur reaching a trade agreement with the European Union, and if there are problems look to Europe, because Mercosur members have almost agreed and finished their proposal.

Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested two executives involved in building a nuclear power plant for Eletrobras, pulling the state-run utility into a corruption scandal that has engulfed government-owned oil company Petrobras.

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday said Brazil could lose its coveted investment-grade rating in the coming year if fallout from a number of corruption investigations further stymies economic growth and the implementation of austerity measures.

Tens of thousands of workers at Brazil's state-owned Petrobras went on a nationwide 24-hour strike on Friday to protest the oil company's plans to sell 15.1 billion dollars worth of assets by the end of next year to help pay off a debt of about 120 billion dollars.

Brazilian prosecutors presented formal charges on Friday against the chief executive of Latin America's largest engineering firm and other senior executives detained last month in a landmark investigation meant to show that the country's elite are not above the law.

Brazil's currency, the Real, tumbled on Thursday after the government announced it would slash its fiscal savings goals for this year and next, raising investor fears that the country may lose its investment-grade credit rating.

Brazil's recession will extend into next year, hurting President Dilma Rousseff's efforts to shore up public finances and arrest a sharp increase in unemployment, Itau Unibanco's chief economist said in a report on Wednesday. Ilan Goldfajn forecasts a drop of 2.2% in 2015 and 0.2% in 2016, down from previous estimates for a decline of 1.7% in 2015 and an increase of 0.3% in 2016.